The Stuff of Nightmares
by That Dragon Kid
Summary: A plague of insomnia has hit Cardiff, the Torchwood team included. As people are forced to live out their nightmares, what secrets will be uncovered by the Torchwood team as they live out their worst fears? Jack/Ianto, implied Owen/Tosh, rated T just in case.
1. No Calm After the Storm

**I haven't updated for a long time, so please bear with me if the story is a little off to start with!**

 **I don't own Torchwood or its characters; if I did, it would be on my TV all day, all night, every day :)**

 **Set after 'Adam' but before 'Reset'.**

 **Comments are very much appreciated; it's been a long while since I last wrote a fanfic! =D**

 **~ Dragon**

 **The Stuff of Nightmares**

 **** **Chapter 1 – No calm after the storm**

Rain poured from the sky as if some entity in the clouds was emptying buckets onto the earth below. No patch of earth was safe from the torrents that lashed through Cardiff. The waters of Cardiff Bay churned uneasily, as if trying to rid itself of the extra liquid that pounded the surface of the sea incessantly. No life stirred on the streets lit by dim street lights; no one dared brave the weather, especially as the first strikes of lightning were just beginning to reach their electric fingers across the sky.

No one but a young woman, the hood of her anorak pulled high on her head, her small frame hunched against the howling winds that tore through her. She was Elisa Morgan, and she _knew_ she shouldn't have gone round to Jess' house, what with the storm brewing, but the call of a bottle of wine and a shoulder to cry on was all too tempting. It was Eric's fault, Elisa thought angrily, turning down an alleyway which was a shortcut to her flat, he was the one who'd all but disappeared, leaving Elisa confused and wondering where she stood.

Elisa hurried through the storm, unable to see much more than a metre in front of her. It didn't help that she was so very tired; she'd been struggling to sleep for several nights now, and although she felt as though she was functioning normally, her judgement was certainly impaired. Ordinarily she was a highly sensible girl, and would have seen the storm brewing. Ordinarily she would have stayed at home.

Home, where it was safe.

This thought lingered in her mind as a sound cut through the howling storm; it was the sound of footsteps, close behind her. Elisa wheeled around sharply, her eyes darting to and fro, but there was so much rain and haze that she simply could not see where the noise had come from. Uneasily, she continued her journey home, occasionally throwing a glance over her shoulder. Her hand tightened on her handbag, ready to hit whoever dared follow her and make a break for it. She stopped suddenly as she heard the footsteps again, accompanied by a hissed whisper.

" _Elisa…_ "

Her resolve broke, and Elisa began to run, without thought of where she was going. She sprinted blindly, and all the while the voice grew louder, until it was positively shouting her name. She stopped, gasping for breath, tears mingling with raindrops on her cheeks.

"What do you want?" The exhausted woman cried out. In front of her, a shadowy figure materialised. She squinted, her heart hammering; she knew she should run, but she found that her feet were rooted in place. Her primal instinct to escape was forced back inside her; the figure drew closer.

What she saw sent dread into the very pits of her stomach. It was her father.

Her father, the man who had beaten Elisa and her mother every night of their lives for eleven years, until her mother had taken Elisa and ran. Her father, who had drank himself to death four years later. Her father, who was the very person Elisa had feared the most.

"No…" Elisa said, as the apparition that was her father drew closer, "no!"

Before the world went black, Elisa saw a mouth ringed with razor sharp teeth, a horrifying, pointed face, and a clawed hand reaching for her. As Elisa Morgan died, the storm evaporated, and the first stirrings of daybreak began to lazily break through the clouds, taking with it the ghost of her father and the echo of her last scream.

-x-

"That rain," Owen snarled as he stalked through the Hub's cogwheel door, "is bloody ridiculous." He threw his sodden coat onto his desk; from across the Hub, Ianto winced over the coffee machine as the coat made a distinctive squelching noise across Owen's keyboard. "I feel like a drowned Weevil."

"You look like one too," Ianto muttered darkly as he began to hand out coffee, although whether Owen heard or not was another matter, for at that moment the doctor chose to let out an extremely loud yawn. Actually, maybe he was yawning at the joke. Still didn't stop Owen resembling a Weevil, Ianto thought, smirking.

"It's been going on all night," Gwen said, stifling a yawn as she accepted her mug, "kept me and Rhys up till the early hours."

"Sure it was just the rain keeping you up?" Jack breezed out of his office, winking at Gwen; he dived out of the way as a notepad sailed through the air, narrowly missing his forehead. Jack pouted at her, about to begin a retort.

"Funny that. I haven't been able to sleep much recently, either," Owen cut in, running a hand through his dripping wet hair.

"Same here," Ianto replied. Jack waggled his eyebrows at Owen and Gwen suggestively; it was common knowledge that a lot of the time that Ianto was tired, insomnia had nothing to do with it. Rather more often, a 51st Century conman by the name of Jack caused this lack of sleep. Ianto flushed red as Jack winked at him.

"I've got a peak in Rift activity!" Tosh called from across the Hub, distracting Jack. Her nimble fingers tapped away furiously on her keyboard as she began to cross-check the spike. "Ten minutes ago…right on the…Plass?" Tosh leant back in her seat and called across to Owen, exasperated. "Didn't you see anything on your way in?"

"I was a bit busy trying not to drown in any puddles, Tosh," Owen shrugged as he joined Jack, Gwen and Ianto behind Tosh.

"There's been a death. Elisa Morgan…the police are heading there now."

"Right," Jack said, "Tosh, stay here and keep an eye out for anything else – let me know if you see any more spikes. Gwen, Owen, Ianto, let's go." Jack looked around, confused. "Where is Ianto?"

"Over here, sir," called a Welsh voice from across the Hub. "Just getting Owen's equipment. You know, for the puddles." In his hand, Ianto held a pair of children's armbands.

For the second time that morning, Gwen's notebook sailed through the air, and with a chuckle Ianto dodged it, running after the retreating team and a scowling Owen.

-x-

"Well," Owen said, standing up and snapping the cuff of his rubber glove against his wrist, "she is most definitely dead."

"Thank you for that valuable observation," Ianto remarked dryly. The police had just began to arrive by the time Torchwood Three had jogged over to the Plass, having chosen not to use the invisible lift, and Ianto stood along with them and Gwen at the edge of the scene.

In the middle of the Plass, a young woman, soaked to her skin, her anorak hood pulled tight around her face, lay sprawled in a pool of water and blood. What looked like claw marks had gouged deep grooves in her skin, and something that looked awfully like tooth marks curved around the slim whiteness of her neck. The hole in the centre of her forehead made it seem as though something had been pulled hastily out of it.

"We need to get her out of her," Jack muttered to Ianto, who nodded and gingerly picked up the girl's feet; Owen held her under the shoulders.

"Well, we'll just be off, then," Gwen grinned toothily at the police officer she stood next to, who rolled his eyes but waved them on.

At the team's retreating backs, the police officer sighed, robbed yet again of what could have been a murder investigation. "Bloody Torchwood."

-x-

What the Torchwood team hadn't noticed, hidden away beside the Millennium Centre, was a tall, gangly figure dressed entirely in black. The figure watched them as keenly as a hawk watches its prey.

In the plastic bag the figure clutched in its hand, the remnants of a piece of Elisa Morgan's skull lay, barely covering the black metal object that had, until moments ago, been a resident in Elisa Morgan's brain.


	2. Insomnia

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and put this story on their alerts!**

 **Please enjoy the next few chapters – I'll aim to get one up every day or every other day =)**

 **~ Dragon**

-x-

 **Chapter 2 – Insomnia**

 ****"Toshiko, can you get the CCTV up of the Plass of the moments before Elisa Morgan's death?" Jack called out as the team burst back into the Hub. Tosh nodded and began clicking away on her keyboard. "Owen, let's get started on that autopsy. The sooner we know how she died, the sooner we can sort this out."

"I'd love to," Owen said sarcastically, sweat beading on his forehead. The woman was a lot heavier than she looked; Owen and Ianto had used the lift to bring her back into the Hub to prevent staring, and even that short distance proved to be an effort for the two men. They stepped off the lift and carried the woman's body down into the autopsy bay, Owen muttering darkly about rain and murders as they went.

"Gwen," Jack continued, depositing his coat onto Ianto as the Welshman climbed back out of the autopsy bay, "the girl had a mobile phone on her – see if you can who the last person she called was. I want to question anyone who might know what happened."

"Righto," Gwen replied, taking the phone which Ianto had already sealed into a plastic bag stamped with the Torchwood logo.

"It's weird," Ianto remarked, standing at Tosh's computer and frowning at the CCTV footage Tosh brought up, "the storm vanished right after she died. Almost like something came out of the storm to kill her. Or it needed the storm to kill her."

"Or it was using it as a distraction…like camouflage?" Gwen suggested as she scrolled through the mobile phone. "Aha! Jack, the last person she rang was a girl called Jess Roth…last night in fact…want me to track her down?"

Jack nodded. "Yes. Go now – we need to know why Elisa Morgan was there." Gwen was out of the Hub door before the CCTV footage had even begun.

On Tosh's PC screen, Ianto, Jack and Tosh watched Elisa Morgan appear on the camera, looking over her shoulder, the rain not quite able to mask the terror etched onto her face. She shouted something; shortly afterwards, she seemed to go into some sort of trance. Moments later, the claw marks began to appear, followed by the gaping hole in her head and the bite marks on her neck.

The three people shared an uneasy glance – there was nothing attacking her. One moment she was unhurt – she could even have been asleep – and the next her unconscious form was thrashing around. As the wounds appeared, she grew still.

"Rewind that," Jack said, leaning in closer. They watched the footage again, frame-by-frame. Again, it seemed as if Elisa Morgan's injuries came out of nowhere.

"Did she faint?" Tosh asked, rewinding the footage again, trying to hide the unease she felt.

"But she was standing up," Ianto said, "why didn't she fall?"

"Because." Owen's voice carried out of the autopsy room. They all immediately ran to him; he watched them assemble on the stairs, his face grim.

"What is it, Owen?"

"She didn't faint," Owen said simply, "she fell asleep."

-x-

Gwen was just pulling up outside Jess Roth's house when her earpiece began to crackle with the sound of Ianto's voice.

"Gwen. Owen's just finished the autopsy. Turns out Elisa Morgan was _asleep_ when she died, standing up. Medical records don't say she was narcoleptic, but you never know…NHS and their red tape…"

"Right. Thanks, Ianto. I'll ask." Gwen yawned widely as she parked her car. It was weird – the past few nights, she didn't seem to be able to sleep. She'd just lie there, tossing and turning, sometimes dozing but always jerking back to life before she could fall into a deep sleep. She rubbed her eyes, shaking her head as if to try and wake herself up.

Gwen rang the doorbell, and shortly afterwards a young woman with puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks opened the door. Gwen smiled sympathetically at her. "Hi. Jess Roth?" The woman nodded. "I'm Gwen Cooper. I think we need to have a talk about Elisa."

Seated in Jess' living room with a cup of strong coffee, Gwen could see the aftermath of the girls' previous night's catch-up; there were two empty bottles of wine and two glasses still stood on the coffee table. The girl sat on the sofa opposite Gwen, hiccupping as she tried to stop crying.

"She came round cause of Eric, see," Jess said, twiddling her thumbs.

"Who's Eric?"

"Her boyfriend. He just upped and left last week, without saying a thing. He was nasty, always picking on her." Jess scowled into her mug. "She came round all hysterical. Crying and saying she thought she was losing it." A tear ran down the girl's cheek.

"Why would she say that?" Gwen probed gently, not wanting to set the girl off crying again. The girl sniffed before continuing.

"Kept saying she was hearing voices, see…a man's voice. Said she thought she saw her dad the other day, too." Jess stared at a stain on her carpet. "He's dead. Elisa…she was deathly scared of her dad. I reckon…I reckon it was because she was tired. Said she hadn't slept for days…had this weird headache that wouldn't go away, and she just couldn't get to sleep."

Gwen felt unease creep upon her; hadn't most of the Torchwood team said they hadn't slept well for a few days either? She shook this thought off as coincidence. "She, er…she wasn't narcoleptic, was she?"

Jess stared at her. "No…why? Did she faint? Is that why she died?"

Gwen shook her head, standing up. "No, no…no reason. I'd best be off. Thank you, Jess…and I'm sorry for your loss."

-x-

When Gwen returned to the Hub, she gathered everyone in the Boardroom.

"So we have a girl, not narcoleptic, who falls asleep whilst walking home." She gestured to a photograph of Elisa Morgan's body which she'd pulled up on the screen.

"Sounds like a Saturday night in Cardiff if you ask me," Ianto said.

"She did have alcohol in her system," Owen added, "but not enough for her to pass out. No, the state of her body, her muscles…she was definitely asleep."

"And then she's hacked to bits by an invisible hit man," Jack said thoughtfully.

"She'd been seeing and hearing things, apparently. She'd seen visions of her dad…apparently she was deathly afraid of him," Gwen continued.

"Anyone got any suggestions?" Jack asked, an eyebrow raised.

"MDMA?" Ianto said; Jack tutted at him fondly before continuing.

"Right. I suggest we all go home, put your heads down, and we'll get going again first thing tomorrow." Jack dismissed them, standing up.

"There's…there's one more thing," Gwen said, swallowing. Four pairs of eyes were trained on her. She looked at the floor and then at each of them in turn. "Elisa's friend…she said Elisa hadn't slept for days. It's just…I know we're all the same. We haven't slept either."

They all looked to Jack. He pursed his lips, thinking hard. "Coincidence. Go home, and try and catch up on sleep. We're sorting this out first thing tomorrow."

It didn't go unnoticed that Jack didn't make eye contact with any of them, nor could he quite hide the waver of worry in his voice that gave away the fact he knew exactly what they were dealing with.

-x-

The figure stroked the piece of metal he'd pulled from Elisa Morgan's skull as if it was a treasured artefact, though it knew it was as worthless as an old newspaper. It'd had to do it…it was so very hungry, and the girl…she had such fear. Such great fear for it to feed off.

The metal…the metal stopped her sleep. It knew it did not need to put it there to cause the insomnia, it was more powerful than that, but it made it so much more difficult for that Torchwood team…a red herring.

The creature smiled at its own cleverness. Soon, it thought, soon it would feed from Torchwood…and it would be free to roam this world forever.

The creature squeezed the metal in its clawed hand; the metal grew hot, and turned an eerie shade of red. It watched the Torchwood team begin to make their separate ways home.

They would not sleep…they would not sleep and soon, the figure thought, soon it would come for them.

Its callous laugh was lost to the skies as a storm began to brew once more over Cardiff Bay.

 **To be continued soon! Please review if you can =)**

 **Lots and lots of Janto coming soon!**


	3. Watching, Waiting

**Thank you so much to everyone who's read/reviewed/followed/favourited this fic so far!**

 **I really hope you enjoy it; lots of Janto and action coming soon!**

 **~Dragon**

-x-

 **Chapter 3 – Watching, Waiting**

The quiet emptiness of the Hub when everyone had left for the day seemed equally both peaceful and depressing to Jack. He hadn't asked Ianto to stay, not that night; the Welshman had seemed exhausted, and Jack knew Ianto wouldn't catch a wink of sleep with him around.

The thought of Ianto made Jack smile; he remembered the last time Ianto had stayed with him, insisting that he needed to sleep, yet they had spent the entire night awake together, talking.

How he wished he'd asked Ianto to stay now. Jack's own loneliness weighed upon him particularly that night and he couldn't quite place why.

He was feeling tired himself, though he dared not say anything earlier; Jack had suspicions of what they were up against and he was loathe to worry anybody. He sighed, running his hand through his hair and stretching out further on his bunk, deep in thought. He rarely allowed himself to feel lonely…Jack would perhaps have gone so far as to say he feared it, being alone.

Jack sat up suddenly, his heart hammering. He stared up through the porthole that opened out into his office and saw only the ceiling. He did not know why, but he had felt as though he were being watched. He shook his head of the thought; Jack knew he must sleep. If what he thought they were up against was true…then sleep was the most valuable asset to him now.

Uneasily, the immortal man lowered himself back down onto his bunk, oblivious of the creature that was perched in a far corner of the Hub, its gnarled fingers wrapped tightly around a piece of metal. It felt it…one more night and this man…this man and his team, they would be ready.

But, the creature thought to itself, a sense of euphoria washing over it, if it could not feed just yet, then it could certainly mess with them…

Rain continued to fall onto the Bay outside as the five members of Torchwood Three spent another night unable to sleep.

-x-

"There's been another death," Tosh said the next day, rubbing her eyes as she prayed that the industrial strength coffee Ianto had made would wake her up even a little. She brought up a picture of the young woman on the screen, feeling a little sick as she always seemed to when someone died. There was something familiar about this girl's name, but Tosh couldn't quite place why. She was so very tired.

"Who is it?" Gwen queried, coming to stand behind Tosh. She blanched as she saw the picture on the screen.

"What's wrong, Gwen?" Tosh asked, noting the expression on the Welsh woman's face.

"That's…that's that girl I went to see yesterday. Jess…Jess Roth." Gwen stared at the photograph of the young woman, deep claw marks evident on her pale skin, blood seeping into the carpet around her. She had died with her eyes closed, as if she was asleep.

"Looks like she died the same way as Elisa Morgan," Ianto added on his way to the coffee machine, his empty mug in one hand and Jack's in the other. He pointed to the girl's head on the picture. "Only she still has her skull intact."

"I'm getting a bit fed up of this alien." Jack had materialised as if from nowhere, glaring at the picture of Jess Roth. "It's far too sneaky for my liking."

"But what is it? We haven't even got an inkling of what we're dealing with," Gwen said, exasperated. "And we're all exhausted…if this goes on much longer, we won't even be able to think straight enough to solve this. Then who knows how many people will die?"

"Guys!" Owen shouted from the autopsy room. "Conference room – now. I've got a positive DNA sample."

-x-

Owen looked as haggard as the rest of them felt as he stood in front of the screen in the conference room. Owen had brought up a medieval drawing on the screen, which was split in two; on the other side, a slowly twisting DNA model floated eerily, looking as un-human as perhaps DNA possibly could.

"Wikipedia?" Ianto smirked, reading the address bar on top of the drawing; Owen scowled at him.

"Shut up. It was better than hacking through your Archives. Last time I went down there I'd turned forty, had my first born and cured the common cold by the time I found what I wanted."

"It's easy to navigate if you know how," Ianto muttered darkly, folding his arms.

"If you're both finished," Jack said with a pointed glance at Ianto; the Welshman ducked his head sheepishly as Owen gave a triumphant nod.

"As I was about to say." Owen pointed at the DNA. "We've got one match for this somewhere in the Archives, but it's unnamed. It's definitely alien, though – and it can change its own DNA structure."

"Like a shape shifter?" Gwen asked. Owen nodded.

"Exactly. In the olden days, there were legends of clawed beasts that fed on nightmares; demons, if you like." Owen zoomed in on the drawing he'd found; the creature depicted was tall, the colour of charcoal and its edges oddly blurred, as if it were made of shadows. It had long, curved claws and the glint of fangs could be seen in its pointed mouth. "People would hallucinate, see what they feared the most…then old Claws here would tear them open, releasing their nightmares and feeding from the energy."

"But what exactly is it?" Tosh said, looking beyond terrified.

"It's called-"

"Illycriath." At Jack's interjection, his four teammates turned to stare at him. He looked at each of them almost defiantly, as if daring them to question how he knew.

"They're born in the shadows of dying planets and sucked into the Rift…usually they just bide their time, lurking just at the corner of your eye, hiding under beds, in wardrobes…they cause nightmares, but they don't need to kill to get the energy." Jack's expression became grim. "But sometimes…sometimes one of them gets stronger. They can sense fear in people…they attach themselves to those with great fear, deprive them of sleep…then they make them live out their worst nightmares in a kind of living sleep, before killing them and devouring the energy that nightmares create."

"And what about the rain?" Gwen asked, "it's been raining for days, but that storm when Elisa Morgan died…did it cause that?"

Jack nodded. "Just for effect. These creatures…they enjoy causing pain, and torture, and scaring their victims literally to death…they're sadistic."

"And this…this is what we're dealing with?" Gwen's voice shook now. She knew as well as the rest of them that the fact all five of them hadn't slept for three days now was not coincidence.

"Yes. And it's going to come for each of us." Jack knew not to keep things from his team; they had to be prepared. At the horrified expressions in front of him, he quickly continued. "It won't kill you. I _know_ it won't. I've had dealings with these creatures before…if they target a group, they'll target the strongest, the one with the most fear, the most material it can work with…"

"You?" Ianto said; Jack nodded simply in response.

"It will show you everything you've ever feared and more, but if you stay strong, it cannot hurt you. It'll try and break us apart, because it knows we have the power to stop it…but we will stop it. I have a plan for when it comes for me. We'll fight this creature together." Jack looked to each of his teammates in turn; all of them returned his gaze with a solid resolution. They would fight till the end; of course they would.

Torchwood Three was ready.

-x-

The Illycriath watched as once more the Torchwood team left for their homes; it was glad to see they all looked exhausted.

Yes…it was almost time. It would follow each of them in turn…learn their secrets…and then…then it would come back for the greatcoat man. The Captain.

The creature's heart gave a sick leap of delight as it savoured the prospect of the Captain's nightmares…it would feed, it would feed forever on his fears…and the creature knew that there was almost nothing now that could stop it.

The rain continued to fall over Cardiff as the shadows behind Toshiko Sato began to move with her.

 **To be continued soon! Thanks for reading =)**


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